I have to explain my job before I can tell this story. I am a travel writer, photographer, and videographer. My last trip (pre-COVID) was in November 2019, and I was on assignment in Costa Rica with NatGeo, so expectations were high. The entire time I was there I was in excruciating pain, but I didn’t dare let it show. I would hobble to my room every night after being out shooting for 12+ hours every day and fall asleep uploading images to my laptop with a bag of ice on my foot, only to repeat the process the next day. This went on for eight days and I was eating ibuprofen like candy.
I had been suffering with what I thought was plantar fasciitis for literally seven months and ultimately found out that it was indeed plantar fasciitis, but in my heel. It was so bad, my heel bone was swollen. My doctor was very “impressed” with how swollen it was because he’d never seen anything like it. And I was looking at him thinking, “well, when you’re done being impressed, what are you going to do about it?” I’m not very happy or kind when I’m in pain.
Fast forward to July, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I had surgery to remove my diseased plantar facia and they replaced it with a piece of my calf muscle. Ouch doesn’t quite cover it. After two weeks they removed my sutures, put me in a cast (for eight weeks!), and I had to scoot around my house on a knee scooter which was great…until I ran over my dog. Slowing down wasn’t necessarily in my vocabulary.
Somewhere around this time I was contacted by Chil Wellness and asked if I’d be interested in trying their De-Stress product. Oh boy…would I ever! I wasn’t sleeping, I was still in pain, and anything would be better than taking pills to sleep and/or decrease my pain level, which, of course, had a multitude of really awful side effects.
All I can say is WOW!!! I get a little excited when something works and not just works but works well. Applying this as directed, I actually relaxed enough to be able to sleep, and once that happened, I thought, this might be good on my foot. I know it says to put it on your wrists, temples, and neck, but hey…you never know…it could help, so why not. Once the cast was off and I was in a walking boot, I rubbed it on my suture site and massaged it in. I won’t say the pain instantly disappeared, but when I woke up in the morning, it was significantly less painful to walk around in my walking boot. I also noticed a few days later that my swelling had gone down quite a bit.
I did this for two weeks while relearning how to walk in shoes again and by the time I got to physical therapy, they were completely stunned by how I was able to move my foot around, my range of motion, and the lack of scar tissue at the surgery site.
So, to be clear, I am sleeping like a baby again, pain-free, and walking just fine, thanks to using this product consistently for the last three+ months. I’m a very happy camper. AND, I graduated from physical therapy a full two weeks early. Yay to me…and Chil Wellness for such an amazing product!
